Machines and methods for cutting products to produce reduced-size products therefrom

ABSTRACT

Machines and methods suitable for performing cutting operations on products to yield a reduced-size product, for example, slicing and strip-cutting elongate food products. Such a method includes simultaneously delivering products to annular-shaped cavities of a rotating impeller. The products are simultaneously delivered with a feed unit that has a feed chute extension that protrudes into an interior of the impeller. The feed chute extension defines feed chutes that are aligned with the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller and direct the products to circumferential series of pockets within the annular-shaped cavities. The products are held within the pockets by centrifugal force as the products are carried past a slicing knife to form a first longitudinal cut through each of the products during a rotation of the impeller and to produce therefrom a substantially longitudinally sliced product.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation-in-part patent application of co-pending U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/142,969, filed Apr. 29, 2016, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/155,909, filedMay 1, 2015. The contents of these prior applications are incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to methods and equipment forperforming size reduction operations on products, including but notlimited to food products.

Various types of equipment are known for reducing the size of products,for example, slicing, strip-cutting, dicing, shredding, and/orgranulating food products. A particular example is the DiversaCut 2110®manufactured by Urschel Laboratories, aspects of which are disclosed inpatent documents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,472,297 and 3,521,688. TheDiversaCut 2110® is adapted to uniformly slice, strip-cut, and/or dice awide variety of vegetables, fruits, and meat products at high productioncapacities.

A portion of a DiversaCut machine is depicted in FIG. 1 as an apparatus10 comprising a casing (or cutting head) 12 that encloses an impeller14. Food product 16 is delivered through a feed hopper (not shown) tothe impeller 14 as the impeller 14 rotates on a horizontal axis withinthe casing 12. Centrifugal force holds the product 16 against the innerwall of the casing 12 as paddles 20 of the impeller 14 carry the product16 past a slicing knife 22 mounted on the casing 12 and oriented roughlyparallel to the axis of the impeller 14. An adjustable slice gate 18located upstream of the slicing knife 22 defines a gate opening, throughwhich the product 16 is able to move radially outward beforeencountering the edge of the knife 22, where a single slice 24 isproduced from each individual product 16 with each rotation of theimpeller 14. The thickness of each slice 24 is determined by the gateopening, and more particularly the radial distance between the cuttingedge of the slicing knife 22 and the adjacent edge of the slice gate 18.In the embodiment shown, the slices 24 enter circular knives 26 as theyradially emerge from the gate opening, with the result that each slice24 is cut into multiple parallel strips 28 as the slice 24 continues totravel under the momentum originally induced by the impeller 14. Ifdiced, shredded, or granulated food products are desired, the strips 28then pass directly into a rotating knife assembly 30 equipped withcrosscut knives 32 that make a transverse cut to produce a reduced-sizeproduct 34 (e.g., diced), which is then discharged from the apparatus 10through a discharge chute 36.

As evident from FIG. 1, the circular and crosscut knives 26 and 32 arelocated outside the casing 12, and therefore engage the food product 16after slices 24 cut from the product 16 have been produced by theslicing knife 22. The slices 24, strips 28, and product 34 are allexamples of reduced-size products that can be produced with a DiversaCutmachine of the type represented by the apparatus 10 depicted in FIG. 1.

Although the above-described methods and equipment are useful for manysize reduction applications, there is an ongoing desire to perform sizereduction operations on various products of different types and shapes,including but not limited to food products. A particular example iselongate food products (i.e, an aspect ratio (width to length) of lessthan one) that preferably undergo orientation during their delivery to aslicing knife so that the slicing knife can make a longitudinal cutthrough the product. Notable but nonlimiting examples include the typesof cuts made in green beans, such as French-cut beans, European-stylecut beans. etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides machines and methods suitable forperforming cutting operations on a product to yield a reduced-sizeproduct, for example, slicing elongate food products and optionally alsostrip-cutting, dicing, shredding, and/or granulating such food products.

According to a one aspect of the invention, a machine includes a casingcomprising a circumferential wall and a slicing knife disposed in thewall. The machine further includes an impeller adapted for rotationwithin the casing about the axis thereof to cause a product within aninterior of the impeller to be held by centrifugal force against thewall of the casing as the product is carried past the slicing knife toform a cut through the product during a rotation of the impeller. Theimpeller comprises annular-shaped cavities that are parallel to eachother within the impeller and paddles oriented transverse to theannular-shaped cavities to define within each annular-shaped cavity acircumferential series of pockets that are circumferentially orientedwith respect to the casing so that the product is circumferentiallyoriented with respect to the casing and the cut through the product is afirst longitudinal cut and a substantially longitudinally sliced productis produced. The machine also includes a feed unit adapted tosimultaneously deliver a plurality of the product to the annular-shapedcavities of the impeller. The feed unit comprises a feed chute unit thatdefines multiple feed troughs and has a feed chute extension thatprotrudes into the interior of the impeller. The feed chute extensioncomprises feed chutes that are aligned with the annular-shaped cavitiesof the impeller.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method is provided forreducing the size of products. The method entails simultaneouslydelivering the products to annular-shaped cavities of a rotatingimpeller that has an axis of rotation. The products are simultaneouslydelivered with a feed unit comprising a feed chute unit that definesmultiple feed troughs and has a feed chute extension that protrudes intoan interior of the impeller. The feed chute extension comprises feedchutes that are aligned with the annular-shaped cavities of the impellerand direct the products to circumferential series of pockets within theannular-shaped cavities. The products are circumferentially oriented bythe pockets with respect to the impeller, and are held within thepockets by centrifugal force as the products are carried past a slicingknife to form a first longitudinal cut through each of the productsduring a rotation of the impeller and to produce therefrom asubstantially longitudinally sliced product.

Machines and methods as described above are useful for various sizereduction applications, including but not limited to elongate foodproducts such as green beans that must be oriented prior to and duringslicing with a slicing knife to make one or more longitudinal cutsthrough individual beans.

Other aspects and advantages of this invention will be betterappreciated from the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view of a machine adapted to perform cuttingoperations on a product to yield a reduced-size product, for example,sliced, strip-cut, and crosscut (e.g., dicing, shredding, orgranulating) products.

FIG. 2 represents a machine similar to that of FIG. 1, but adapted toperform longitudinal slicing operations on elongate products to yieldreduced-size products.

FIG. 3 represents the machine of FIG. 2 with a closure unit thereofpivoted to an open position to expose a casing and impeller of themachine.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3, but with a portion of the casingshown in phantom to further reveal the impeller and with a strip-cutunit removed to reveal a slicing unit of the machine.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the machine of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5, but with a portion of the casingshown in phantom to reveal the impeller of the machine.

FIG. 7 is a top view of the interior of the casing of the machine ofFIGS. 2 through 6, revealing the impeller and a portion of a feed chuteof the machine.

FIG. 8 is a side view of a portion of the machine taken from FIG. 3,showing the casing, impeller, slicing unit, and strip-cut unit of themachine.

FIG. 9 is a more detailed side view of the slicing and strip-cut unitsof FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a detailed perspective view of the slicing and strip-cutunits of the machine of FIGS. 2 through 9.

FIG. 11 is a view similar to FIG. 10, but with the impeller removed tofurther reveal the slicing unit.

FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 12C are isolated views of the impeller of themachine of FIGS. 2 through 11.

FIGS. 13A, 13B, and 13C are isolated views of a slice gate of themachine of FIGS. 2 through 11.

FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C are schematic representations of initial,intermediate, and final forms, respectively, of a food product that canbe processed by the machine of FIGS. 2 through 11.

FIG. 15 represents a machine similar to that of FIG. 2, but modified toinclude a feed unit for delivering elongate products to the machine.

FIG. 16 represents the machine of FIG. 15 with a casing and strip-cutunit of the machine removed to reveal an impeller and slicing unit ofthe machine.

FIG. 17 is a view similar to FIG. 16, but with a closure unit thereofpivoted to an open position to expose the interior of the impeller.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIGS. 2 through 13C depict a machine 110 and components thereof inaccordance with a nonlimiting embodiment of the present invention. Themachine 110 and certain of its components are similar in generalconstruction to the machine 10 and components represented in FIG. 1. Inview of these similarities, the following discussion will focusprimarily on certain aspects of the machine 110, whereas other aspectsnot discussed in any detail may be, in terms of structure, function,materials, etc., essentially as was described for the machine 10represented in FIG. 1. In FIGS. 2 through 13C, consistent referencenumbers are used to identify elements that are the same or functionallyequivalent to elements shown in FIG. 1, but with the numerical prefix“1” added.

As with the machine 10 of FIG. 1, the machine 110 can be seen in FIG. 3as including an annular-shaped casing (or cutting head) 112 and anannular-shaped impeller 114 that rotates within the casing 112 on ahorizontal axis. The impeller 114 may be driven by an electric motor(not shown) encased within an enclosure 111 of the machine 110. Theimpeller 114 is enclosed and coaxially mounted within the casing 112,which defines a stationary housing for the impeller 114. On the basis ofthis coaxial arrangement about the rotational axis of the impeller 114,relative terms including but not limited to “axial,” “circumferential,”“radial,” etc., and related forms thereof may be used below to describethe nonlimiting embodiment represented in the drawings, and suchrelative terms are intended to indicate the construction and relativeorientations of components and features of the machine 110.

The impeller 114 has an open axial end coinciding with an open axial endof the casing 112 through which product is able to enter the impeller114, and a number of axially-orientated, circumferentially-spacedpaddles 120 that are mounted near the perimeter of the impeller 114 soas to be adjacent a circumferential wall 113 of the casing 112. As seenin FIG. 8, the paddles 120 may be inclined relative to radials of theimpeller 114 in a direction opposing the rotational direction of theimpeller 114. The circumferential wall 113 of the casing 112 defines acircumferential opening that is partially closed by a slice gate 118.The slice gate 118 defines an outlet or gate opening through whichproduct is able to exit the impeller 114, and the size of the gateopening is adjustable by pivoting the slice gate 118 toward and awayfrom the casing 112.

With the arrangement described above, as the impeller 114 rotates in aclockwise direction (as viewed in FIGS. 2-4 and 8-11), the paddles 120capture product introduced into the impeller 114 through its open axialend, and centrifugal forces produced by rotation of the impeller 114cause the product to be urged radially outward into engagement with thecircumferential wall 113 of the casing 112. The impeller paddles 120carry the product past a slicing knife 122 that is mounted on the casing112 and oriented roughly parallel to the axes of the casing 112 andimpeller 114. The adjustable slice gate 118 is located upstream of theslicing knife 122 and allows the product to move outward across the edgeof the knife 122 to produce a single slice from each individual productwith each rotation of the impeller 114. The slice gate 118 and slicingknife 122 are effectively components of a slicing unit of the machine110, which performs a first cutting operation on products that have beenintroduced into the impeller 114. The thickness of each slice isdetermined by the radial distance between the cutting edge 123 of theslicing knife 122 (FIGS. 10 and 11) and an adjacent gate edge 119 of theslice gate 118 (FIGS. 8-11).

From the slicing knife 122, the nonlimiting embodiment of FIGS. 2-11represents the slices as entering an array of circular knives 126 as theslices emerge from the slicing knife 122, with the result that eachslice is cut into multiple parallel strips as the slice continues totravel under the momentum originally induced by the impeller 114. Thecircular knives 126 are preferably oriented perpendicular to the slicingknife 122 so as to make parallel longitudinal cuts through the slices,in some cases through each slice, resulting in the production ofreduced-size strip-cut products, which are then discharged from themachine 110 through a discharge chute 136. As with the impeller 114, thecircular knives 126 may be driven by an electric motor (not shown)encased within the enclosure 111 of the machine 110.

FIGS. 2 through 6 represent the machine 110 as having a feed hopper 138,which delivers product to the impeller 114 as the impeller 114 rotateswithin the casing 112. In the nonlimiting embodiment represented, thefeed hopper 138 is part of a closure unit 140 that further includes thedischarge chute 136 and a cover 142 for the slicing and circular knives122 and 126. As evident from FIG. 3, the closure unit 140 is pivotallymounted to the machine 110, so that an open position of the unit 140exposes, among other things, the casing 112, impeller 114, and astrip-cut unit 144 that comprises the circular knives 126.

As evident from FIGS. 2, 5 and 6, the feed hopper 138 includes dividers146 that define multiple feed passages 148 within the feed hopper 138.Each feed passage 148 communicates with a separate feed chute 150, whichare part of a feed chute unit 152 that projects into the interior of theimpeller 114 when the closure unit 140 is in a closed positionrepresented in FIGS. 2 and 5 through 7. As evident from FIGS. 3, 4, 6, 7and 12A-C, the impeller 114 is configured to have multiple concentric,parallel, and axially-spaced rings 154 between two end rings 155, whichdelineate multiple concentric, parallel, and axially-spaced annularcavities 156 (FIG. 12B) within the impeller 114. The impeller paddles120 divide each cavity 156 into circumferentially-spaced series ofpockets 158, each constituting a sector of its cavity 156 andcircumferentially distributed at the perimeter of the impeller 114 so asto also be circumferentially oriented with respect to the casing 112. Inthe nonlimiting embodiment shown in the drawings, six impeller paddles120 are equi-angularly distributed on the impeller 114, such that eachpocket 158 extends about sixty degrees in the circumferential directionof the impeller 114. Also in the embodiment shown in the drawings, fiverings 154 define six cavities 156 with the end rings 155, and FIGS. 6and 7 show three feed chutes 150 with each chute 150 delivering productto the pockets 158 of two cavities 156. The feed chutes 150 can be seenin FIGS. 3, 4, 6 and 7 as transitioning from a direction roughlyparallel to the axis of the impeller 114 (and therefore perpendicular tothe annular cavities 156 of the impeller 114), to a direction that morenearly coincides with the circumferential direction of the impeller 114and therefore more nearly parallel to the annular cavities 156 of theimpeller 114. In the nonlimiting embodiment shown in the drawings, thefeed chutes 150 are oriented about 30 degrees from the circumferentialdirection of the impeller 114 and its cavities 156, such that the rings154 of the impeller 114 perform the final alignment of products withinthe cavities 156 and their pockets 158.

In view of the above, as the impeller 114 rotates, products placed inthe hopper 138 are distributed by the dividers 146 among the feedpassages 148 of the hopper 138 and thereafter delivered and distributedby the feed chutes 150 among the pockets 158 of the annular cavities 156of the impeller 114, after which the paddles 120 effectively push theproducts through the slicing knife 122. The distance between the knife122 and the adjacent downstream gate edge 119 of the slice gate 118defines the gate opening of the casing 112, and as previously noted thewidth of the gate opening can be adjusted by repositioning the gate 118relative to the casing 112, for example, by pivoting the gate 118 towardand away from the casing 112. The thickness of each slice is determinedby the gate opening, and therefore can be modified by making adjustmentswith the slice gate 118.

As most readily seen in FIGS. 11, 13A, 13B and 13C, channels 160 aredefined in the surface of the slice gate 118 facing the impeller 114.The channels 160 are parallel to each other and circumferentiallyoriented with respect to the casing 112. The channels 160 arerepresented as being defined by ribs 162 that protrude from the surfaceof the gate 118 toward the impeller 114. In the nonlimiting embodimentshown in the drawings, five ribs 162 define six channels 160, with eachchannel 160 being individually circumferentially aligned with only oneof the annular cavities 156 of the impeller 114. As such, a product (ormultiple products) located in and circumferentially aligned by a pocket158 of a cavity 156 is guided to one of the circumferentially-alignedchannels 160, and then remains circumferentially aligned by the channel160 before and during engagement with the slicing knife 122.

As should be evident from the descriptions of the feed chutes 150,pockets 158, and channels 160, an elongate product (an aspect ratio(width to length) of less than one, and particular products whoselengths are greater than the axial widths of the channels 160 andpockets 158) will be oriented during its delivery to the knife 122 bythe individual and cooperative orientations of the feed chutes 150,pockets 158, and channels 160, so that the knife 122 will create alongitudinal cut through the product. Such a capability is advantageouswhen processing certain food products, a notable but nonlimiting examplebeing green beans, such as schematically represented in FIG. 14A. Commontypes of cuts associated with green beans include French-cut beans,schematically represented in FIG. 14B, as well as other cut styles,including European-style cut beans. In the case of producing French-cutbeans, the gate opening of the casing 112, determined by the distancebetween the knife 122 and gate edge 119 of the slice gate 118, can beadjusted with the gate 118 to be roughly one-half an average or nominaldiameter of the beans supplied to the machine 110, so that thelongitudinal cut produced by the slicing knife 122 roughly cuts eachbean longitudinally in half, as is represented by FIG. 14B. As evidentfrom FIGS. 10 and 11, the cutting edge 123 of the slicing knife 122 maybe serrated to promote the cutting effectiveness of the knife 122,particularly when producing a longitudinal cut through a product havinga relatively small aspect (width to length) ratio.

FIG. 14C represents the result of making additional longitudinal cutsthrough the French-cut bean of FIG. 14B. As described above, these cuts,referred to above as strip-cuts, can be created with the circular knives126 as halved products (e.g., FIG. 14B) emerge from the slicing knife122, with the result that each slice is cut into multiple parallelstrips as each halved product continues to travel under the momentumoriginally induced by the impeller 114. The circular knives 126 areoriented to be roughly perpendicular to the slicing knife 122, andtherefore make parallel longitudinal cuts through each halved-product toproduce the reduced-size strip-cut product represented in FIG. 14C,which is then discharged from the machine 110 through the dischargechute 136. While multiple parallel longitudinal cuts are shown in thestrip-cut product of FIG. 14C, a single cut or more than two cuts couldbe made instead. As evident from FIGS. 9 through 11, the circular knives126 may also have serrated cutting edges 127 to promote the cuttingeffectiveness of the knives 126, particularly when producinglongitudinal cuts through products having a relatively small aspect(width to length) ratio. Optionally, the machine 110 may be configuredto perform additional processing on the strip-cut products downstream ofthe circular knives 126, such as with crosscut knives 32 of the typedepicted in FIG. 1.

FIGS. 15 through 17 depict a machine 210 and components thereof inaccordance with another nonlimiting embodiment of the present invention.The machine 210 and certain of its components are similar in generalconstruction to the machine 110 and components represented in FIGS. 2through 13C. In view of these similarities, the following discussionwill focus primarily on certain aspects of the machine 210, whereasother aspects not discussed in any detail may be, in terms of structure,function, materials, etc., essentially as was described for the machine110 represented in FIGS. 2 through 13C. In FIGS. 15 through 17,consistent reference numbers are used to identify elements that are thesame or functionally equivalent to elements shown in FIGS. 2 through13C.

FIG. 15 represents the machine 210 as equipped with a feed unit 238,which is shown delivering elongate products (green beans) to theimpeller 114 (FIGS. 16 and 17) of the machine 210 as the impeller 114rotates within the casing 112. In the nonlimiting embodimentrepresented, the feed unit 238 comprises a feed chute unit 252 thatincludes a feed chute extension 253 that projects into the interior ofthe impeller 114 when the closure unit 140 is in a closed positionrepresented in FIGS. 15 and 16. The feed chute extension 253 projectsinto the interior of the impeller 114 through an opening 256 (FIG. 17)in a door 254 of the closure unit 140. As a safety measure, theextension 253 and opening 256 are partially covered by a shield 258rigidly attached to the door 254. As evident from FIG. 17, the feedchute extension 252 is similar in construction and function to the feedchute unit 152 depicted in FIGS. 3, 4, 6 and 7. The closure unit 140 andits door 254 are pivotally mounted to the machine 210 so that in itsopen position the closure unit 140 exposes, among other things, thecasing 112, impeller 114, and strip-cut unit 144.

As evident from FIG. 15, the feed chute unit 252 and its extension 253have aligned dividers 246 that define multiple troughs 248 along whichthe products flow toward the impeller 114. The troughs 248 are alignedwith feed chutes 250 (FIG. 16) attached to the extension 253. As withthe previous embodiment of FIGS. 2 through 13C, each feed chute 250delivers product to the pockets 158 of multiple annular cavities 156 ofthe impeller 114. In the particular embodiment represented, threetroughs 248 deliver product to three feed chutes 250, and each feedchute 250 delivers product to two of the six cavities 156 of theimpeller 114. The troughs 248 are represented as defining linear pathsthat are disposed at an acute angle (i.e., less than ninety degrees butmore than zero degrees) to the axis of the impeller 114. This angle isdepicted as roughly forty-five degrees to the impeller axis in FIGS. 15and 16. The feed chutes 250 define arcuate paths to perform the finalalignment of products with the cavities 156 and pockets 158 of theimpeller 114. The angle that products are reoriented by each feed chute250 is preferably equal to about ninety degrees minus the acute angle ofthe troughs 248. In the particular embodiment of FIGS. 15 through 17 inwhich the angle of each trough 248 is roughly forty-five degrees, thefeed chutes 250 divert the products an angle of about forty-five degrees(90°−45°).

According to a preferred aspect of the embodiment of FIGS. 15 through17, the feed unit 238 includes a vibratory shaker (not shown) so thatproducts dropped on or delivered en mass to the feed unit 238 becomeoriented parallel to the troughs 248 of the feed chute unit 252 beforebeing delivered to the feed chutes 250. FIGS. 15 and 16 indicate theprimary vibrational motion as parallel to the troughs 248, though otherprimary or secondary vibrational motions could also be utilized.

In view of the above, as the impeller 114 rotates, products placed inthe feed unit 238 are distributed by the dividers 246 among the feedtroughs 248 of the unit 238 and are thereafter delivered and distributedby the feed chutes 250 among the pockets 158 of the annular cavities 156of the impeller 114, after which the paddles 120 effectively push theproducts through the slicing knife 122. As previously discussed inreference to the prior embodiment, the thickness of each slice isdetermined by the gate opening, and therefore can be modified by makingadjustments with the slice gate 118.

In addition to green beans, the machines 110 and 210 and processesperformed therewith can be adapted to cut a variety of different typesof food products and produce a variety of different cuts, for example,by adjusting the axial spacing of the circular knives 126 to perform oneor more cuts on each individual slice produced by the slicing knife 122and produce reduced-size strip-cut products of various different widths.It is also foreseeable that the machines 110 and 210 and their processescould be adapted to cut products other than food products. Therefore,while the invention has been described in terms of a specificembodiment, it is apparent that other forms could be adopted by oneskilled in the art. For example, the physical configuration of themachines 110 and 210 and their components used therewith could differfrom those shown, and various materials and processes could be used tomanufacture the machines 110 and 210 and their components. Therefore,the scope of the invention is to be limited only by the followingclaims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A machine for cutting products, the machinecomprising: a casing comprising a circumferential wall and a slicingknife disposed in the wall; an impeller within the casing and having arotational axis about which the impeller rotates within the casing tocause a product within an interior of the impeller to be held bycentrifugal force against the wall of the casing as the product iscarried past the slicing knife to form a cut through the product duringa rotation of the impeller, the impeller comprising multiple rings thatare axially-spaced and concentric in relation to the rotational axis ofthe impeller to delineate multiple annular-shaped cavities within theimpeller that are parallel to each other and axially-spaced andconcentric relative to the rotational axis of the impeller, the impellerfurther comprising paddles oriented transverse to the annular-shapedcavities to define within each annular-shaped cavity a circumferentialseries of pockets that are circumferentially oriented with respect tothe casing so that the product is circumferentially oriented withrespect to the casing and the cut through the product is a firstlongitudinal cut and a substantially longitudinally sliced product isproduced; and a feed unit adapted to simultaneously deliver a pluralityof the product to the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller, the feedunit comprising a feed chute unit that defines multiple feed troughs,the feed chute unit comprising a feed chute extension that protrudesinto the interior of the impeller, the feed chute extension comprisingfeed chutes that are each configured to deliver a portion of the productto at least one of the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.
 2. Themachine according to claim 1, wherein the multiple feed troughs definelinear paths that are disposed at an acute angle to the rotational axisof the impeller.
 3. The machine according to claim 2, wherein the feedchutes define arcuate paths to perform a final alignment of the productswith the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.
 4. The machineaccording to claim 3, wherein the products are reoriented by each feedchute an angle equal to about ninety degrees minus the acute angle ofthe multiple feed troughs.
 5. The machine according to claim 1, whereineach of the feed chutes is aligned with one of the multiple feedtroughs.
 6. The machine according to claim 1, wherein each of the feedchutes is aligned with more than one of the annular-shaped cavities ofthe impeller.
 7. The machine according to claim 1, wherein the feed unitis a vibrating feed unit.
 8. The machine according to claim 1, whereinthe casing further comprises a circumferential opening in the wall andan adjustable slice gate that partially closes the opening, the slicingknife being oriented parallel to the rotational axis of the impeller andto an adjacent edge of the slice gate to define therewith a gateopening.
 9. The machine according to claim 8, wherein the slice gate hasa surface facing an interior of the casing and a plurality of channelsdefined in the surface that are circumferentially oriented with respectto the casing.
 10. The machine according to claim 9, wherein each of thechannels of the slice gate is individually circumferentially alignedwith one of the annular-shaped cavities of the impeller.
 11. The machineaccording to claim 1, wherein the slicing knife is configured andarranged so that the first longitudinal cut formed by the slicing knifeis a halving cut and the sliced product is a substantiallylongitudinally-halved sliced product.
 12. The machine according to claim1, further comprising circular knives oriented substantiallyperpendicular to the slicing knife and adapted to form at least a secondlongitudinal cut through the sliced product to produce strip-cutproducts.
 13. The machine according to claim 12, wherein the circularknives are configured and arranged so that a single second longitudinalcut is produced with the circular knives through the sliced product andthe single second longitudinal cut is substantially perpendicular to thefirst longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.
 14. The machineaccording to claim 12, wherein the circular knives are configured andarranged so that a plurality of second longitudinal cuts are producedwith the circular knives through the sliced product and each of theplurality of second longitudinal cuts is substantially perpendicular tothe first longitudinal cut made with the slicing knife.